Glorified bellhop. Salary: $37,000 

So the money isn't great to start off, but you're learning a trade instead of burning that cash on tuition. Luckily, you're starting in a building with only four floors, making the heights—as well as potential mistakes—less intimidating.

Elevator going up. Salary: $52,000 

You finished your apprenticeship and landed a job in a ten-floor high-rise with two banks of three elevators. It's a big step up from your apprenticeship building, but luckily you're part of a team that rotates the technician responsible for emergency repairs. Maintaining that much on your own would involve some vertigo-inducing headaches.

Top technician. Salary: $76,000 

After proving your capabilities, you've been promoted to lead elevator mechanic at the ten-floor high-rise. This means you don't have to work nearly as many night shifts—though it does mean you have to deal directly with more people calling for fixes more frequently than before.

Elevator whisperer. Salary: $83,000 

Having never had any dangerous incidents occur during your time as lead mechanic, a forty-five-floor office building, complete with five banks of three elevators, is now the domain you manage as lead technician. You gladly accept the hefty new responsibilities, as well as the hefty paycheck.

Guru of gravity defiance. Salary: $90,000 

After more than twenty years in the business, your job has seen a lot of ups and downs. (C'mon, you knewwe weren't done with those puns.) You're lead mechanic for one of the tallest buildings in Chicago and have even developed a new training program for up-and-coming apprentices. Still, there's nowhere to go but up.